Poker dealers at Foxwoods, such as Arnold Adler, of New London, Conn., would be among the employees represented by the United Auto Workers.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

A judge in Connecticut yesterday rejected an appeal by Foxwoods Resort Casino seeking to overturn a unionization vote by the gambling venue’s dealers.

Administrative Law Judge Raymond P. Green ordered that the process establishing the United Auto Workers as the dealers’ representative should go forward. That process could lead to the UAW becoming among the first unions to represent workers at a tribal casino. It would represent about 2,600 workers at Foxwoods, one of the world’s largest casinos.

In November, the dealers voted 1,289 to 852 in favor of joining the United Auto Workers, which represents about 8,000 gambling workers in Atlantic City, N.J.; Detroit, Mich.; and Newport.

The Mashantucket Pequots, the casino’s owners, appealed the union vote in December, filing a number of objections to the way the vote unfolded. Among other things, the tribe claimed that union “agents” harassed and intimidated anti-union dealers, improperly spoke to dealers on the day before the vote and provided voting notices and ballots only in English or traditional Chinese.

“It is the employer that has the burden of proof with respect to showing that certain specific conduct by union agents, or in some cases, other persons, had undue and adverse impact on the election and that the conduct occurred within the time period from the date that the [unionization] petition was filed until the date that the election was held,” Green wrote at the beginning of his 20-page opinion.

“It is my opinion that the employer has not met that burden in this case.”

Union supporters and UAW officials said they were happy about yesterday’s ruling.

“We are thrilled that Judge Green affirmed that our election was a free and fair measure of the will of the dealers,” said Denis Gladue, in a statement e-mailed to The Journal by the UAW. Gladue’s job is listed in the statement as “dual-rate dealer in table games.”

The UAW’s secretary-treasurer, Elizabeth Bunn, took note of her union’s growing representation of casino workers.

“The dealers at Foxwoods join a growing tide of casino workers standing together and standing up for a voice on the job,” Bunn said in the UAW statement.

Earlier this week, a second group at Foxwoods formally notified the casino of intent to unionize.

The International Union of Operating Engineers filed a petition stating it has the support of a “substantial number” of employees at Foxwoods who want the union to represent them.

The union would cover about 260 workers in the casino’s engineering department.

The unionization efforts at tribal casinos follow a ruling in February 2007 that knocked down a claim by Indian tribes that their casinos aren’t subject to the National Labor Relations Act, and as a result, not open to unionization.

Such efforts are also under way at tribal casinos in California.

A spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequots did not return phone messages left by The Journal.

pgrimald@projo.com